1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to disposable beverage containers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Disposable beverage containers formed of styrofoam, waxed paper, waxed cardboard, or some other economical material are widely used in commercial food preparation establishments known as "fast-food" outlets. In such food preparation establishments meals and beverages are prepared and packaged in low cost, disposable containers primarily for consumption off the premises. Since the beverage containers utilized are not designed for reuse and are discarded promptly following consumption of the beverage packaged therein, economy in packaging is extremely important. However, in efforts to produce disposable beverage containers at as low a cost as possible, the manufacturers of conventional, disposable beverage drinking containers have produced products which exhibit several significant defects.
Beverages prepared for consumption off premises are typically packaged in frusto-conical styrofoam or waxed paper cups with thin plastic lids disposed across the open mouths of the cups. Conventional plastic lids of this type are of a circular configuration with narrow, downturned lips at their outer circumferences. The lids span the open mouths of the beverage drinking containers, and the downwardly depending lips encircle and grip the upper edges of the walls defining the beverage container mouths.
Consumers frequently carry lidded beverage containers of the type described together in close proximity to each other in trays, cardboard boxes or cartons and in paper sacks. The mouths of conventional beverage containers are typically larger in diameter than the bases thereof, so that the peripheral edges of the lids of beverage container drinking cups which are carried together are frequently jostled against each other. Very frequently the lids of such containers are jostled loose, from the mouths of the cups to which they are secured with the result that liquid is likely to leak from the mouths of the cups.
In many instances disposable beverage containers are carried in the same box, tray or sack as food items, and are transported significant distances in automotive vehicles prior to consumption. Due to jerking and vibration resulting from operation of the vehicle, beverages leaking from the containers very frequently spill into food packaged with the beverages, or onto the vehicle upholstery, much to the dissatisfaction of consumers. Nevertheless, while this problem has persisted for many years, no adequate solution has heretofore been found. Fluid tight lids can, of course, be constructed, but the inordinately large expense of such devices, has been an insurmountable obstacle to their use in disposable food packaging.